1983

The press release, clipping, and e-mail cupboard was bare this month, so I actually had to make some phone calls. Now, we've been over this before, guys, haven't we, this calling-me-back thing? So rude, so uncaring not to. Ahem, GailHegarty Williams and Eric Valley. When I tried John Sontich—yes, dashing Dr. John, of whom I promised more news—I was lucky enough to get his charming wife, Ute, on the phone. I can now report that John is not only an orthopedic surgeon in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, but a traumatologist working in the only Level 1 trauma center in Cleveland. Ute, herself, is a doctor as well, presently working on her Ph.D., doing research on cystic fibrosis. The two met through a colleague of John's and were married a little over two years ago. Admits Ute, "In our wedding, anyone who wasn't family was from Dartmouth." Their son, Lukas, will be two in April.

Then I called Tim Golden, because I had noticed his byline in The New YorkTimes over a story on San Francisco. I had thought Tim was in Mexico, because the last time I read the paper thoroughly (about three years ago) that's where he was filing stories from, but it turns out he's been in the Bay area for a year. (Tim says his predecessor got snapped up by VanityFair, so who knows what will happen to Tim.)

What I really wanted to know was whether Tim still has those enviable, boing-y curls. I clearly don't have what it takes to be an investigative journalist. I was too cowed by Tim's impressive career to ask.

Ric Bucher, another California-based journalist (sportswriter for the San JoseMercury News for something like a decade) is, alas, about to stop being Californiabased. Ric, who covers the NBA, was just offered a job with the Washington Post. He decided to take it, but it was a tough call. Yes, the prestige and the opportunity to work on book-length projects (Ric is also working on a novel) were temptingtempting enough, as it turns out—but Ric was faced with having to give up his present ten or 11 weeks of vacation for a paltry five or six. I know we all feel for Ric, who, incidentally, had just gotten back from two weeks of surfing in Hawaii when the offer came through.

Tim Kidder, who works on the business side of yet another fine newspaper, The LosAngeles Times (sigh of Loss and Regret on my part), is now the father of not one but two children. Tim and wife Lindsey welcomed Margaret into the world in October, and now Katie, 2, has a little sister. With a growing family, a new house was in order. The Kidders are building a palatial one in Manhattan Beach, I hear.

The e-mail cupboard wasn't completely bare. Mark Hausmann informs me that he and his wife, Rachel, now have four, count them, four children. Jacob Elijah was born on July 4, joining Hannah, 5 1/2, Nate, 3 1/2, and Benjamin, 2 1/2. That's hardly what I'd call Independence Day, but certainly reason for celebration. I'm in awe of people who have four children, particularly as it was the number I wanted until I had two. You can meet the entire Hausmann brood at Reunion this coming summer, Mark promises. Don't forget: June 19-21.

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